Sunday 31st May 2015
Buff-tips, in-cop, Christophstal May 2015

Buff-tips, in-cop, Christophstal May 2015

Broad-leaved Helleborine?, Christophstal May 2015

Broad-leaved Helleborine?, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, female calling to male, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, female calling to male, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, male feeding female, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, male feeding female, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, female fed, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, female fed, Christophstal May 2015

<em>Micropterix aruncella</em>, Christophstal May 2015

Micropterix aruncella, Christophstal May 2015

Last night, one of my Buff-tip moths from last summer emerged from its pupa. It was late, so I didn't pay much attention to it and just put it outside on the plant nearest the door. This morning it was still there, with an intimate friend. My moth had clearly been a female and had just stayed-put waiting for a passing male (it doesn't work the other way round - males don't wait around for passing females).

In the morning, we went up to our meadow to cut back some of the saplings and to save some plants from the impending arrival of the sheep. Christine found what she thinks may be a broad-leaved helleborine. Luckily, it isn't on the part of the meadow that is normally grazed by the sheep, so hopefully we'll be able to find out exactly what it is. It seems to be in a location that is too sunny for helleborines.

In the afternoon, it brightened-up and got a bit warmer. The Red-backed Shrikes were out again and I managed to get a nice sequence of photos of the male feeding the female.

To complete the day, I was looking at the large numbers of Micropterix calthella moths on one of the rampions in the front garden and I saw a few with stripes. These are actually Micropterix aruncella - which becomes the 371st garden moth species.

Friday 29th May 2015

Today we found two slow worms in the cellar. It wasn't easy getting them out as they crawled back down into a pipe every time we turned the light on. After several visits we found them in the dark with a torch and carried them into the garden.

Thursday 28th May 2015
Emperor Moth caterpillar, 4th instar, Christophstal, May 2015

Emperor Moth caterpillar, 4th instar, Christophstal, May 2015

Emperor Moth caterpillar, 4th instar in progress, Christophstal May 2015

Emperor Moth caterpillar, 4th instar in progress, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, Male, Christophstal, May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, Male, Christophstal, May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, Female, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, Female, Christophstal May 2015

It has been very good to see the male and female Red-backed Shrike all this week. The female stays nearer to their 'home' tree and the male often brings her insects he has caught. We hope they are nesting. There were a couple of jays trying to get into the tree but the shrike is quite good at defending himself. I finally got some photos that I'm happy with.

The emperor moth caterpillars are now at L4 (4th instar). I managed to get a photo of one of them mid-transition from L3 to L4. If you look closely you can see the black skin of L3 has peeled back at the head revealing the green skin of L4.

Sunday 24th May 2015

We decided to check how much heating oil we had in the tank today. When we opened the lid, we found several slow worms had crawled into the lining of the duvet we had put in there to insulate the tank. They must have got trapped, as a few had not survived but we released six back into the garden.

Saturday 23rd May 2015
Fern affected by frost, Christophstal May 2015

Fern affected by frost, Christophstal May 2015

We noticed many of the ferns in the garden had suddenly died back. We wondered whether it had been dried out by the wind but in the end, our conclusion was that they had been affected by the late frost on Thursday night. The new growth seems okay.

Friday 22nd May 2015
Female Red-backed Shrike, Christophstal May 2015

Female Red-backed Shrike, Christophstal May 2015

Today, both the male and female red-backed shrikes came to our garden.

Thursday 21st May 2015
Garden Warbler, Christophstal May 2015

Garden Warbler, Christophstal May 2015

It was really cold all day today, with a really chilly wind.

In the late afternoon, we spent a few minutes outside listening to a distinctive bird song coming from the old Tuchfabrik. Eventually, the bird came into our garden and I got a couple of blurry pictures of our 60th garden bird species - a Garden Warbler. Not surprisingly, the identification was made based on the song, not my photos!

Wednesday 20th May 2015
Red-backed Shrike, Christophstal May 2015

Red-backed Shrike, Christophstal May 2015

The red-backed shrike was around quite a lot today, catching flies over the Harrerbuckel.

I managed to get some reasonable photos - but I hope to get some better ones when the sun is shining.

Sunday 17th May 2015
Great Diving Beetle, Christophstal May 2015

Great Diving Beetle, Christophstal May 2015

Large Bittercress, Christophstal May 2015

Large Bittercress, Christophstal May 2015

Blackcap, Christophstal May 2015

Blackcap, Christophstal May 2015

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Christophstal May 2015

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Christophstal May 2015

It was quite a nice day today so we spent a lot of time outside.

I had the moth trap out last night. There wasn't much of any interest in there this morning, except for a Great Diving Beetle. 

We went down to the dry stone walls at the fish ponds to do another plant species count. On the way, we came across a new species of bittercress; Large Bittercress.

We saw a couple of red-backed shrikes in the garden this morning so I took my camera out and stood around for a very long time trying to get a photo. I did see one of the shrikes a couple of times but didn't manage to get a photo.

Later on, there was a song-off between three or four Blackcaps and I eventually managed to get a photo of one of these in flagrante.

I also managed to get a few other reasonable photos.

Saturday 16th May 2015

We walked up to town this morning as it was promising to be a lovely day. We found one of the houses around the market square had several house martin nests under the eaves - real ones as well as man-made ones. It's great to see that someone is actively encouraging them to nest there. There were loads of house martins, swifts and swallows darting around the sky above the square.

At lunchtime, I opened up the shed to get my equipment ready for an afternoon of strimming. Our cat immediately went into the shed and came out with one of the young mice we'd seen around the shed recently, in her mouth. This was the first thing she has ever caught and we think she was a bit disappointed with it. She'd been sitting patiently outside the shed for hours on-end recently as she'd heard the mice in there. Since she caught that one, she hasn't been back. 

Thursday 14th May 2015
Water Avens, Finkenberg May 2015

Water Avens, Finkenberg May 2015

Grizzled Skipper, Finkenberg May 2015

Grizzled Skipper, Finkenberg May 2015

<em>Tetragnatha montana</em>, Christophstal May 2015

Tetragnatha montana, Christophstal May 2015

Today was a public holiday in Germany so we went for a walk up the Finkenberg to photograph the Water Avens we'd seen while on our run first-thing in the morning.

We also saw some Grizzled Skippers and a few day-flying moths. We'd seen a small fritillary butterfly earlier, but there was no sign of it when I had my camera, so that one remains unidentified.

I'm still intending to document a few more species of spider, so I've included a photo of a Tetragnatha montana found on the wall of our house.

Sunday 10th May 2015
<em>Micropterix calthella</em>, Christophstal May 2015

Micropterix calthella, Christophstal May 2015

Sparrowhawk, Christophstal May 2015

Sparrowhawk, Christophstal May 2015

We got up early today to photograph birds during the dawn chorus. It was a bit cold and dull so there wasn't a lot about.

Later on, we went around the garden taking photos of all the plants we hadn't already got website photos for. These have now been added.

In the afternoon I found another couple of new moth species for the garden. Micropterix calthella is a very small, day flying micro moth - there were lots eating the pollen on buttercups. They're one of the few moths that can eat solid food as most moths have a probosis rather than proper mouth parts. I also found a really nice, fresh example of Ethmia quadrillella which is a black and white micro moth. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of this one.

We also saw a sparrowhawk unsuccessfully attempting to catch a starling in mid-air.

Saturday 9th May 2015
Asarabacca, near Glatten May 2015

Asarabacca, near Glatten May 2015

Herb Paris, near Glatten May 2015

Herb Paris, near Glatten May 2015

Crosswort, near Glatten May 2015

Crosswort, near Glatten May 2015

Whorled Solomon's Seal, near Glatten May 2015

Whorled Solomon's Seal, near Glatten May 2015

Carrion Crow, Christophstal May 2015

Carrion Crow, Christophstal May 2015

Marsh/Willow tit, Christophstal May 2015

Marsh/Willow tit, Christophstal May 2015

This morning we went to a site near Glatten which has some interesting plants.

Later in the afternoon, we spent an hour counting the birds in the garden for the Nabu bird count event. We had 13 bird species visit the garden during that time. I took a few photos which I'm rather proud of.

Friday 8th May 2015
Bitter Vetchling, Christophstal May 2015

Bitter Vetchling, Christophstal May 2015

Blackbird nest, Christophstal May 2015

Blackbird nest, Christophstal May 2015

While gathering some hazel leaves for my hungry Emperor Moth caterpillars, I noticed a colourful flower which I immediately recognized as Bitter Vetch. We've seen this plant further up the Finkenberg but not around our garden. We subsequently found a large patch of it growing on the slope in Talstrasse. We've probably missed it before as it only flowers for a very short time. This picture is much nicer than the one I had before and shows how striking the flowers are.

We haven't seen the blackbirds that were nesting in the yew in our garden for a while so I had a peek. It looks like the eggs and the nest have been abandoned - probably because of the terrible weather back in April.

Thursday 7th May 2015
Newly hatched, Christophstal May 2015

Newly hatched, Christophstal May 2015

Probably <em>Asplenium septentrionale</em>, Christophstal May 2015

Probably Asplenium septentrionale, Christophstal May 2015

<em>Incurvaria pectinea</em>, Christophstal May 2015

Incurvaria pectinea, Christophstal May 2015

The Emperor Moth eggs that were left on the house wall on the 21st of April hatched today. There are about 100 small, black, hairy caterpillars feasting on a mixture of hazel and hawthorn.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk down to the dry stone walls at the fishponds and found a new spleenwort: probably Asplenium septentrionale.

In the evening, I found a micro moth on the field maple which is a new species for the garden; Incurvaria pectinea. The caterpillar of this species feed from inside an interestingly shaped case made of leaves, so I'll be looking out for those.

Friday 1st May 2015

It rained all day today but when I went out early this morning, there was a wonderful  -and loud - dawn chorus going on despite the heavy downpour. Later, on a run, I saw two squashed slow worms on the road. They are clearly out and about now. Along with the rain have come hordes of slugs and snails. The long dry period gave the plants in the garden a head start, but now the slugs are munching away at everything with a vengeance.